Create a new file (File > New), our size was set to 420 pixels by 130 pixels.

We’re going to use a stock photo of what seems to be a building on fire. Place a stock photo somewhere on your canvas, and resize it if needed.

Paste your render somewhere on the canvas. We’re using this Full Metal Alchemist character.

We will be creating a sort of flame effect by brushing, which we will edit on to achieve a good looking result. First, you have to set your Brush opacity a little lower and turn on Airbrushing at the toolbar.

Select a light color (yellow in our case), and brush a little over your signature.

Now select Filter > Distort > Displace…:

This screen will come up. Experiment with the settings to create different outcomes. When you press OK, it will ask you for a file to displace with. Select any image you like:

If it still looks too much like the brushing, repeat it again. When you’re done displacing, Sharpen it by selecting Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen…

Outcome:

We’re going to apply an outer glow to add a flame effect to it. Select Layer > Layer Style > Outer Glow, and pick these settings:

This brings us to our outcome:

Repeat this again, add brushing:

Set the same outer glow effect:

We’re going to add some blue flames to it now. Select a light blue color, and brush softly on the signature:

Apply the same effects, Filter > Distort > Displace… (once or twice), then Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen…

Now apply this outer glow settings to it (Layer > Layer Styles > Outer Glow):

The outcome:

Now change the blending mode of the blue flames to Screen to blend it in a little:

We’re going to add a Color Balance adjustment layer. To do this, select Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Color Balance. Obviously, use your own settings, ours probably won’t work on your signature. Here’s an example animation of the adjustment layer settings:

Outcome of the Color Balance layer:

We’re going to add a Black and White adjustment layer. To do so, select Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Black and White (or select the ying/yang ish icon on your layer panel):

Our settings:

We’ve set the blending mode to Lighter Color:

We’re going to use the Reduce Noise function. You can also use Topaz for this. First, select Image > Apply Image:

Now select Noise > Reduce Noise, and play around until you’re satisfied:

The Reduce Noise function:

To create the good looking blue effect, select Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation, and move the Hue a lot (experiment with the colors):

With the Hue changed:

We’re going to remove some of the blue effect. To do this, select the Layer Mask in the adjustment layer like shown below:

Select areas on the signature with the Elliptical marquee tool, and press delete. Optionally, you can use a splatter brush to do this:

Outcome:

Add a Gradient Map (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map). The settings are set Black to White:

Change the blending mode to Darker Color:

Another Color Balance layer with these settings (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Color Balance):

And an exposure adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Exposure…). Set the opacity to 50%:

Outcome after the adjustment layers:

Now add some dots with a soft brush on your canvas to create some extra lighting effect.

Change the blending mode to Screen afterwards:

We’re going to sharpen the image. First we have to Create a new layer, then select Image > Apply Image.

Optionally you can use the Topaz filter if you have it.

We’re going to blur some sections we don’t like with a lens blur. Apply the image on a new layer:

Then select Filter > Blur > Lens Blur:

Outcome (experiment with the settings):

Erase most of it except for the parts that you want to blur (in our case, the cape and the corners):

To finish up the final coloring, add another Color Balance layer:

We’re nearly done, finish up the coloring with some more adjustment layers, experiment.

We finished with a Curves adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves):

This brings us to our final result:

We hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial. You can download the PSD file in the premium member section. Good Luck!

Premium Members can Download the PSD file in the Premium Section. Sign up now!

Create a new file in Photoshop, our file was set to 400 pixels by 160 pixels.

Add a stock picture to your canvas, we used a skateboarder grinding off of a rail:

Resize this stock to fit nicely into the signature:

Now add in the first cinema4d render, (you can download the render here). We’re going to make it look as if the skateboarder is grinding on top of the render, so try placing it nicely onto the canvas”

Add in another cinema4d effect on the bottom. (You can download the render here) We’re going to use this to create some sort of “blast” underneath his skateboard:

We’re going to add an effect render on top, and erase the section around them.

After erasing the blue away, we have this pink effect left.

Place this render on the canvas, and rotate it a little.

Set the blending mode of the effect render to Lighten:

Apply the image on a new layer. We’re going to use the bottom render as a clipping mask. Select Image > Apply Image:

Now move this layer downwards on top of the second render:

Move the layer down in the layer panel as well, and set it on top of the bottom render.

Now go to Layer > Creating Clipping Mask (or press ALT + CTRL + G)

This is what your layer panel should now look like:

And this is the result of using that clipping mask on the render. Move it around until you’re satisfied:

Add a gradient map by going to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map. The default settings should be black to white:

Play around with the opacity, we’ve set it to about 31%, and reduced the fill to 80%:

Create another gradient map, and change the settings. We’ve used a purple to orange gradient map:

Set this layer to Screen, and reduce the opacity to 30%:

Add a Photo Filter Adjustment Layer ( Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Photo Filter ), we’ve used these settings:

Set the blending mode to Multiply, and reduce the opacity to about 73%:

Another Photo Filter Adjustment Layer ( Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Photo Filter ):

Change the blending mode to Screen, and reduce the opacity to about 50%. Our result:

Create a levels adjustment layer to adjust the lighting. Play around with the settings, here are the settings we’ve used:

We’ve kept the opacity on 100% and blending mode to normal:

Create another Photo Filter ( Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Photo Filter ):

We’ve reduced the Density to 43%, and kept the opacity on 100%:

Apply the image on a new layer, and smudge the bottom area a little as to create a “blast effect” under his feet.

After selecting the smudge tool, click on the brush settings in the corner right, and change the settings around. Use your favourite smudge settings and brush:

We’ve smudged the area under and around his skateboard:

Apply the image on a new layer by going to Image > Apply Image. We’re going to add depth by blurring the sides. Grab the blur tool:

And blur the sides of the image. Here’s an animation to illustrate the blurring done:

Apply a gradient map (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map), and use the eyedropper tool to select a color from your canvas:

Set this layer to multiply, and reduce the opacity to about 30-35%:

Apply the image on a new layer (Image > Apply Image) and use the sharpen tool to sharp the middle section of the signature, or use Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen and erase whatever appears to be too strong:

Apply the image on a new layer ( Image > Apply Image) , and select the burn or dodge tool. Use this to add some extra depth:

Our result after using the burn and dodge tool:

Apply the image on a new layer, and set this to overlay. Remove some of the layer with the eraser tool if it overdid the effect a little:

After setting the blending mode to Overlay:

Now grab a soft brush (we picked a color from the canvas with the eyedropper tool) and brushed softly on top of the pink render to enhance the effect of the blast a little:

Set this brushing to overlay, which brings us to our Final result. Do some finnishing touches if you like, blurring, sharpening, burning, etcetera. The outcome:

We hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial. Stay tuned for more updates!

We hope you’ve enjoyed this Skate Signature tutorial. Premium Members can Download the PSD file in the Premium Section. Sign up now!

the outcome of this radiohead signature tutorial:

This is the stock we are going to use for the tag, feel free to use this for your tag:

Here’s another one you can use:

We’re going to add some stock on top. You can use the liquify tool to change this around, or the burn tool to change the colors a little. Make sure there’s some lighting right around our main character, and the area around itis a little more darkened.

Set this layers blending mode to Lighten, if you have some lighting on the stock thats close to your character, you should get an outcome similar to this:

Create a new layer, and apply the image (Image > Apply Image). We’re going to use some splatter brushes to erase the background., and move it around a little. This is what’s left of our bg shown on a white background:

This is the layer shown on the background. We’re going to change the blending mode to Lighten afterwards:

blending mode on lighten:

Create a new layer, and select Image > Apply Image. We’re going to add some coloring. Press CTRL + U to bring up the Hue/Saturation window, and play around with the settings. First, we’re going to set an orange color. Make sure you have Colorize checked:

The result shown below:

Grab your eraser tool again, and start erasing sections with a splatter brush or whatever brush you like. Make sure you remove part of the focal, in our case his face. We’re going to leave this uncolored.

Our layer after erasing shown on a black background:

Change this layers blending mode to darken. Our result:

Repeat this step, however pick a different color this time. Remember to remove the section that cover a good looking focal, which in this tag is his face.

Set this layers blending mode to Darken:

Grab a dark bright color (we picked #00064c) and fill a new layer. We’re going to set this layer to Lighten, and reduce its Fill.

On the photoshop layer panel, reduce the layers Fill to 65%:

Our result after reducing the fill and changing the opacity:

Make a new layer, and use the eyedropper tool to select a bright color on your canvas. Brush near your focal to create some lighting, slightly brush around him to create extra flow:

Set this layers blending mode to overlay:

We’re going to add some adjustment layers. We’re going to add a Color Balance layer, a Channel Mixer and a Selective color layer. However, rather than showing every setting used in these adjustment layers, I’ve uploaded a PSD file with these layers so you can take a look at them yourself. More importantly though, try creating your own and experimenting with colors.

In your Color balance layer, select Shadows, change settings, select Midtones, repeat. Do the same for Highlights.

You can download the psd file of these adjustment layers Here. Remember to play around with its settings.

Our result after using Color balance:

Our result after applying the Channel mixer layer:

Result after applying the selective color layer:

Apply the image on a new layer (Image > Apply Image). We’re going to blur the areas that look too sharp and strong. You can use the blur tool for this to blur select areas and to keep the focal point (his face) sharpened.

Here’s an animation to show you what we’ve changed (mainly his chest and arms):

We’re going to use the pen tool to create some nice lines around our focal. Select your pen tool, and pick these settings on the toolbar:

use the pen tool to randomly create some lines around the focal point:

We’re going to stroke this line with a soft 1 pixel brush. Select your brush, and pick the top left brush in your layer panel. Make sure it is set to size 1. This is a soft brush and will produce a good looking result if you check Simulate Pressure. Use the eyedropper tool to pick up a matching bright color.

Go to Paths on your layer pallette, and right click the Work Path. Select Stroke Path:

in the dropdown menu, use the brush and make sure you check Simulate Pressure:

Our result, we’ve set this layer to Lighten:

We’re going to repeat the previous step, however selecting a larger and softer brush this time:

Our result (don’t worry we know it looks like crap)

Change this layers blending mode to Linear Dodge:

Create a new layer, and with a large brush, tap a few times in around your focal with a bright color. Then tap twice with a smaller dark brush, to create some detail in the brushing. Our brushing is shown below:

We’re setting this layers blending mode to Color Dodge.

We’re nearly done, apply the image on a new layer, and select Filter > Sharpen. If it’s too sharp, reduce the fill to about 50%.

The colors on the microphone still look a little off, so we’re going to apply the image on a new layer again. Then, select an area with bright colors and detail, and copy this. Paste this on top, and move it to the side a little:

Change its blending mode to darken, and if you’re satisfied, you’re done! Our final result:

We hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial, there’s way more to come soon! If you enjoyed this tutorial, please leave a comment or reply to support us!

Result of this signature tutorial:

optional result without gradient map adjustment layer:

1. We start this signature tutorial by creating a new file and fill this with a dark color. Our size was set to 370 by 120 pixels.

2. Find a good dark stock with a few lighter areas on it. We’re going to distort this stock by using the clone stamp tool and a splatter brush. Select the clone stamp tool, grab a splatter brush (check out our resources section for brushes) and hold ALT on your keyboard. Then select a region with some dark texture in it. Then tap around your canvas with your brush. Our result:

Select a splatter brush:

Press and hold alt to create a destination point, and tap around your tag:

3. In the next few steps we will be making some lighting on our tag. Grab a large round soft brush, and tap once near the button with a white color.

4. Set this layers blending mode to overlay:

5. Repeat these few steps with a lighter color to create some more lighting. Tap around with your brush, we selected a color from the render we are going to use later. If you’ve found a stock already, use your eyedropper tool to select a color:

6. Change its blending mode to either screen or overlay, we picked screen:

7. Brush some more with the same color until you’ve created some good looking lighting:

8. Add text to your canvas, the font we used for this tag is Kingthings SpikeMT. Add some text, ours made no sense, but add whatever you feel fits the tag with a bright matching color:

9. Use the same bright color we used for the text to tap softly with a smaller brush in the center of the lighting we made:

10. Find some good stock, and paste it on the canvas (duplicate the stock and keep a backup at all times, we will use it later). Remove the right side of this stock where we have the most texture in the background:

11. Change this stocks blending mode to lighten:

Our result:

12. Our render is too blended in, so we duplicated our render, set its blending mode to normal, and erased all parts but around the shoulder:

This is the render shown on a white background to show you what we’ve erased:

our result (we kept the renders blending mode on normal)

13. Go back to the backup render we kept (step 10) and duplicate it. Move it to the top of your layer panel. Set its blending mode to lighten:

moving the layer panel:

the result afterwards:

14. Add an effect render that matches the color of your render, and remove some sections of it. Make sure if follors the flow of your tag. Set its blending mode to screen afterwards.

Our render added:

The signature shown with Its blending mode set to screen

15. We’re going to add a gradient map adjustment layer with some very bright colors, and we’re going to reduce this layers opacity to ~ 80% to 85%. Our gradient map (colors used were black #070003, pink #FC006C, and yellow #F6FC02):

Our layer map (we set it to reverse:)

result after putting the opacity down somewhat:

16. We’re going to use the original colors of the render, duplicate the backup of the render we kept and move it on top of the layer panel:

The duplciated stock from step 10:

Erase the stock apart from the section around the head:

17. Set the copied stocks blending mode to lighten to blend it in slightly:

18. We’re going to make another gradient map, this time a black to white gradient map. We’re going to change the blending mode to Luminosity, and reduce the opacity somewhat, we used 44%:

After changing the blending mode to Luminosity and reducing the opacity to 44% :

19. We’re going to add some more detail by creating a clipping mask on splatter brushing. Before we add the brushing, hide the text, and apply the image on a new layer (Image > Apply Image).

20. On a new layer, add some brushing with a splatter brush where your tag needs some more texture:

21. Move the applied image layer up over the brushing layer, and go to Layer > Create Vector Mask, or press ALT + CTRL + G. Move the layer up a bit to cover some of the brushing.

22. Duplicate that clipping mask, and move it down a bit to cover the other part of the brushing, and set its blending mode to lighten:

23. Make a new layer, and select Image > Apply image. We’re going to sharpen our tag, go to Filter > Sharpen, if it’s too sharp you can reduce the opacity. We’ve kept it on a 100% though:

There are two more things we can do, the right side still looks a little dark.

24. Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Brightness Contrast Layer…, and put the contrast down a little. We set it down to -15 for our final result:

25. The second optional result we can make is creating a version without the adjustment layer. Hide the adjustment layers, the brushing and the clipping masks:

26. apply this result on a new layer (Image > Apply Image):

27. Unhide the splatter layer we’ve made:

28. Drag the applied image above the splatter layer, and create a clipping mask, move this layer up a bit:

29. Duplicate this layer, and move the render sidewards and down a little:

30. Apply the image on a new layer, and select Filter > Sharpen for our final optional result:

Result:

1. Find a good wallpaper, render or image, and place it on a 390 by 200 pixel canvas (size is not that important though). We’ve centered our focal point in this tag:

2. Right click on this layer, and duplicate it. Grab the burn tool, and start burning around the edges and some parts of our focal point:

burning:

3. Next, grab your eyedropper tool, and select a lightish color on your canvas. Brush close to your focal, and slightly smudge this brushing with the smudge tool. Try not to overdo it. To illustrate what we’ve done, this is our brushing shown on a black background:

shown on our render:

4. Duplicate this render, and set its blending mode to Lighten:

5. Repeat this step on the right side, brush and smudge, then duplicate the layer and set it to lighten. Our brushing:

our result:

6. Keep repeating this until you’re satisfied. Try not to overdo it to keep the tags general color scheme and feeling. Remember to set the layers to Lighten.

result:

7. Place a wireframe Cinema4d render on top of the tag, and erase parts around the focal. Set this wireframe layers blending mode to Multiply:

blending mode set to multiply:

8. Grab a splatter brush, and tap once around your render. If you’ve picked the wrong color, simply add a color overlay by going to Layer > Layer Style > Color Overlay, and select a new color.

9. Add a light render next to your focal, and set its blending mode to lighten. Repeat this step on the left side. To illustrate what our render looks like, we’ve set a black background behind it:

blending mode set to lighten:

10. We’re going to fix the lighting now. In the following steps we will add adjustment layers. To do this, go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer… and select the layer we need.

We’re going to start with a Brightness/Contrast layer with the following settings:

11. A black to white gradient map set to Soft Light on 20% opacity with these settings:

12. Another gradient map set to Soft Light and 20% opacity, purple to orange:

13. A Photo Filter set to soft light on 20% opacity:

our result after applying the adjustment layers:

14. Make a new layer, and apply the image (Image > Apply Image), and grab your burn tool again. Add more depth by darkening the section around your focal area:

burning areas around our focal:

15. Keep burning until you’re satisfied, then add your text in a good spot. The tags nearly done by now:

16. Apply the image once more, and select Filter > Sharpen. Erase areas that come off too strong, or reduce the opacity.

Done! We hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial, feel free to post comments, questions and suggestions!

This is the signature we’ve made:

1. Right, open up a new file.

as you can see, we picked 340 by 130. Find a good wallpaper, and place it in your file. Resize it to fit your canvas:

2. Now on the following layers, add your renders and remove parts you dont like, and try creating some sort of focal point in your signatures. Toy around with the layer settings to create nice coloring and textures on your signature. The following layers and layer settings were used:

Layer Blending mode: Lighten 100% opacity:

Layer Blending mode: LinearDodge 100% opacity:

Layer Blending mode: ColorDodge 100% opacity:

Layer Blending mode: LinearDodge 100% opacity:

Our result at this point:

3. We’re going to create some lighting at our focal point. On a new layer, use your eyedrop tool to pick a light color from our render. With a soft brush, add some brushing and set the layer to Screen at 100% opacity. Reduce the opacity if you feel like it’s too bright in your canvas:

result:

4. To add more depth into this signature, we’re going to add dark brushing at the edges. Add some black brushing at the sides on a new layer, and reduce the opacity if needed. We kept the opacity at 100% though:

5. We’re going to add an adjustment layer (Layer > New adjustment layer > Color Balance). I picked these settings, but it’s important that you make it look good, these settings might not work in your signature if you have a different background, used different renders or played aroudn with the brushing. Toy around with the settings, and make sure you have preview checked in the checkbox. Turn it on and off to see its effect.

before we added our color balance:

after we added our color balance:

6. Now we’re going to add some more textures into the signature. You can either pick your Round Marquee Tool like we did, or you can pick up the pen tool to make custom shapes. You can find great pen tool tutorials here. We made some white circles into our signature, changed the size and location of the circles and placed them in a seemingly interesing place near our focal point. Set this layer to linear dodge to make it stand out from the background. This is how we did it:

some more circles placed into the signature:

some more circles placed into the signature:

7. At this point we felt that the signature was a bit too dark, so on a new layer we picked a “not too darkish” color from our canvas, and brushed lightly. Set this layer style to Screen, and reduce its opacity to around 60%. Erase any bits that you don’t need or that make it look bad.

the result after this brushing:

8. Make a new layer, and go to Image > Apply Image… We’re going to flip this horizontally. Go to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal… This should be your result:

9. The signature looks a bit boring now, so we’re going to add a subtle Cinema4D render. You can find these and much more renders on our Resources page. Set this layer to LinearDodge with 100% opacity:

our result with the cinema4d render applied:

10. We’re going to do some more smudging. Make a new layer, and Apply your image (Image > Apply Image…). Try not to overdo this step, but just smudge lightly

11. We’re going to add some more light brushing to our canvas, experiment with the layer settings until it looks nice. We set our layer to Screen on 25% opacity. it gives the signature a lighter feel. If it doesn’t make it light enough, pick a lighter collor and do it over.

our result after adding light brushing:

12. We’re going to add an adjustment layer. Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Photo Filter… and pick these settings (play around with the settings if you have a different canvas)

Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Color Balance… and toy around.

Result after adding adjustment layers:

13. Make a selection somewhere in your canvas, pick a detailed spot with difference in lighting, this will probably look best. Make a new layer, and while you have a section selected go to Image > Apply Image… Move this section around, and perhaps even turn it around. You can press CTRL + T or go to Edit > Free Transform… turn it around or change its angle until you are satisfied. We’re going to use this section to place our text, so if you like vertical aligned text, change its angle. Put it in a good place. In our canvas, the text on the shirt of the left guy looks kind of out of place, so this would be a good spot to put the selection.

Our result after applying the selection:

14. Place in your text on top of the square box. The text is obviously optional, but we used the methods explained in the following steps to color our text and have it match with the signature:

15. Add an cinema4d render on top, and erase parts that you do not need. Set the blending mode to LinearDodge on 100% opcaity:

our result after the cinema4d render was applied:

16. Add a couple of adjustment layers by going to Layer > Adjustment Layer and select the following:

Gradient map on luminosity with 75% opacity

Color Balance, layer mode set to normal but opacity reduced to 60%

our signature is finnished! result:

Original signature made by TrueFantom. Thanks a lot to The Dragon for the sharing the tutorial with SignatureStop!

In this tutorial we will be creating this Aquanox wallpaper manipulation with the use of several filter effects and cinema4d renders:

1. Start with your wallpaper, and resize this to fit your signature. We used a 390 by 130 pixels file. Place it nicely into your canvas.

2. We can use the blur tool to create depth into our signature. On our render, we’re going to blur the left side of the image. Grab the blur tool, and start brushing:

3. We’re going to use the displace filter. This can be a bit tricky and really changes your outcome depending on what setting you use. You can find a tutorial about displacing in our Filter Effects section. Displace the image, and remove pieces that are on top of your render.

4. We’re going to add in an abstract Cinema4D render. Resize this layer if you need to. We use a tentacle render, and will place it in such a way that it won’t look weird in our final result. Try not to just slap it in there, but think about its position.

our cinema4d render:

our canvas:

5. Fill a new layer with black, and use a soft white brush to add some lighting to our layer. Set this layers blending mode to ColorDodge on 100% opacity.

our soft brushing layer:

our canvas after applying color dodge:

6. We’re going to add a wind effect to our image. Because the wind effect only works horizontally, we’re going to rotate our signature first. Apply your image onto a new layer ( Image > Apply Image…) and go to Edit > Transform > Rotate 90 degrees CW.

Now go to Filter > Stylize > Wind (use the default settings or toy around with them) and rotate your image back to where it was (Edit > Transform, Rotate 90 degrees CCW)

Remove some of the parts that look bad or that cover the render, this is our layer after applying the effect:

our canvas afterwards:

7. Since our signature still looks somewhat boring, we’re going to add some more renders into our signature in the following steps. Try having it following flow or lighting of your signature. First we picked an abstract cinema4d file:

our canvas after applying:

8. We’re adding in an effect Cinema4d render, and erased parts that we don’t need. We’ve set this layer to lighten on 100%:

our result:

9. For the next step, we’re going to use our Burn, Dodge and Sharpening tool, and we’re going to liquify our background. Go to filter > Liquify, and play aroudn with the background until you’re satisfied:

Last but not least, apply a Topaz filter:

10. Add a boder, finnishing touches, and you’re done!

result in high quality:

remember to experiment with the steps and techniques. Thanks a lot to Dragon for writing this tutorial!

1. ok lets get started. Create a new document, and make it whatever size you like. For this tutorial, the size used was 400 pixels by 145 pixels.

2. Paste your stock on your canvas, and duplicate these a few times (Layer > Duplicate Layer…). Resize these a bit to fill your background. Get your smudge tool, and smudge the background a bit. Use your liquify tool on the background as well to get the desired effect:

3. Place your stock somewhere nice where you want your focal point to be, and smudge it into the background a bit.

4. Next we’re going to use our brush tool to create a focal point. With a black brush, brush around the edges to create a focal point. Go to Filter > Brush Strokes > Crosshatch…, and play around with the settings.

5. Add your render in on top again, and burn it a bit with your burn tool.

6. The next step will change depending on the settings you use. We’re going to use the displace filter. Go to Filter > Distort > Displace, and choose a bright PSD file. It will displace the PSD into our signature (if you need help with this step, please check this Displace Tutorial). If needed, paste your stock on top again, and remove parts of it that you dont like. Try creating some sort of “smashing” effect in his arm:

7. Use your Burn Tool to darken down your tag, this will add depth into your signature.

8. Add in a good looking Cinema4D effect (you can find great Cinema4D renders at our Resources page), and use Filter > Distort > Ripple > -200 to fade this render into the background. Set its blending mode to Linear Dodge on 50% to 60% opacity.

9. Duplicate the Cinema4D effect, and flip it horizontally (Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal). Place this over his other arm.

10. We’re going to remove some bad looking lines on his arm that interfere with our lighting. Grab a soft black brush, and brush over these lines. Change the opacity down a bit.

11. Make a new layer, and set the blending mode to Soft Light. We’re going to softly brush his arm to add lighting. This will create the blast effect on his arm, so experiment with the brushing.

12. adding some more lighting, however set the blending mode to overlay on 80% opacity:

13. We’re adding some Pale green soft brushing. Set this layer to lighten on 50% to 65% opacity.

14. Make a new layer, and go to Image > Apply Image…, and with a soft black brush (around 10 to 20 pixels in size) darken any parts of the render that stand out too much. You can also use the burn tool. On our render, we have some sort of shadow on the right side of his body and knuckles that do not look good, so we brush those parts.

15. Now we’re going to add adjustment layers. Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Photoflipter… , select a green color and set it to 25%.

16. Make a gradient map, set it to luminosity on 50% opacity:

17. Make another gradient map, and set it to Hue on 100% opacity:

18. Add in your text, and use your sharpen tool on your render to add depth. Afterwards, go to Filter > Other > High Pass > 10.0, and set this layer to Softlight or Overlay on 25% to 55%.

19. Add a border, and you’re finnished!

result high quality:

thanks again to dragon for writing the original tutorial! great work!

1. Right, get your wallpaper, and put it in your file. Resize if you need to. My file is 300 pixels by 100 pixels.

2. Grab your brush tool, and make a new layer. Make sure you get a hard round brush, about 30 in size. brush around the left and right of your focal point, which in this case is Scarlett Johansson.

3. We’re going to smudge the white brushing. Grab your brush, and go to the brush window. I picked a chalk brush with standard settings apart from scattering. I took these scattering settings:

Start smudging the edges, Try to have it blend into the background.

4. Now we’re going to add a white bar around our render, and make it look like its some sort of cloud going right behind here. We do this by picking a hard brush, my size was around 20 pixels, and brushing from our white area to the sides of our scarlett johansson model.

5. We have to smudge this again, and try to make it look like its fading behind our model. You can do this by making the parts closest to our render a bit darker. Smudge until you are satisfied, then grab your eraser and remove parts that are on top of our render.

6. Under our white brushing, I copied the wallpaper that we started with. I set this layer to screen with 30% Opacity.

7. We’re going to remove sides of our white area. Grab your eraser, and remove the edges. Dont worry if it looks bad, in the next step we will fix it with some more smudging!

8. Grab your smudge tool, and smudge the edges a bit. This is what I ended up with:

9. Grab your eraser, and go back to the wallpaper that we set to screen on 30% opacity. You can see her white ribbon going trough her face, and it looks a bit out of place. I decided to remove the ribbon with the eraser, but kept most of the other stuff there. This was my result:

10. We’re going to add adjustment layers to color the background and our model. After adding the adjustment layers, we will remove parts of it to compliment the wallpaper. Add these 2 adjustment layers:

Channel Mixer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Channel Mixer…):

My result after applying this adjustment Layer:

Add another Channel Mixer layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Channel Mixer…)

Result after adding that layer:

11. Now on the top adjustment layer, click on the channel mixer section, and brush with a black color where you want to remove the adjustment layer. As you can see, I removed the render from the adjustment layer in the first Channel Mixer, and i removed the Background in the second Adjustment Layer:

My result after doing this:

12. Now we’re going to fix bad looking spots in our smudging. If you look at my signature so far you can see the down right corner does not look too good, and you can fix this by either smudging some more like I did, or adding a dark color on top on a new layer and reducing the opacity. I smudged the down right corner and a little on the left:

13. We’re nearly done, add a border to your signature. I like these 2 pixel borders on top and bottom:

14. We’re going to add more detail to our image. I picked the pen tool, and made an outline of the right side of our models face with the pen tool. I then went to Paths and Right Click > Stroke Path, set it to 1 pixel with Black:

Duplicate the lines a move them a bit to the right:

15. We’re going to sharpen our image a bit. Make a new layer, and go to Image > Apply Image… you can now use the sharpen filter (Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen…) or use the sharpen tool.

16. Try adding detail, add another line if you are not satisfied like I was or perhaps smudge here and there.

17. I thought that my signature was a bit too dull, so once again I applied my image (new layer, Image > Apply Image) and set this to soft light on a lower opacity. I picked 26% opacity.

18. Pick a color from your render using your eyedrop tool (I used a color from her hair) and on a new layer, brush it over your model. Set this layer to overlay and reduce the opacity a bit. Mine was reduced to 23%

my result after brushing:

19. At this point I still wasn’t satisfied with the result, so I made another layer and applied the image (Image > Apply Image…) and sharpened the background and a part of her face to add more texture.

20. Just to experiment, I flipped the signature horizontally by going to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontall… and I think it looked pretty good.

21. Add text (give text some more attention than I did though!) and as soon as you are satisfied, you’re done!

Feel free to post suggestions, questions or results in the comments!

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